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A Desexualized Pirate in Yuan Yung-Lun's Ching Hai-Fen Chi: Analysis of Ching Yih Saou's Body and Gender from a Perspective of Butlerian Theory

Received: 14 November 2018     Accepted: 6 December 2018     Published: 14 January 2019
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Abstract

When the ethical view for women in Confucianism is typified by the principle that “three follow the road,” there is no wonder that men’s predominance of women should be regarded as obligatory in China. The stereotype that women have to be barred from official society and kept imprisoned in their homes has thoroughly penetrated the country. However, Chinese women have presented the impression that they are powerful. The most striking examples are Lü Zhi, Wu Zetian, and Empress Dowager Cixi, who wielded their authority over the country as empresses after their husbands’ deaths. Considering that they are real figures in Chinese history, the fact of powerful women in China cannot be altogether impossible. Now there is a contradiction that some autocratic empresses, without parallel in the world, have existed in the history of a country that has always valued the ideology of women’s subjection to men. An opinion should be that “the differences called sexual difference cannot be applied to all men and women. Rather, this difference is meaningful only when comparing the nature of men and women as groups, that is, at the statistical level,” and the same can be applied to the way Chinese women live. It should be understood that not all women in China were oppressed and that some of them could hold the reins of power, depending on their ages and status. Focusing on maritime history especially reveals the limitations of the stereotype that Chinese women were supposed to be driven out of official roles and oppressed in homes. Take, for example, the pirates who were active on the South China coast, where some communities had members who lived their whole lives aboard ships without landing. Ching Yih Saou the most famous female pirate in Chinese maritime history, was active from the end of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century. The aim of this paper is very innovative. Judith Butler, in forwarding a different position from sex–gender dualism, argues that human beings can exhibit the characteristics of men and women without reference to physical difference. This paper adopts Butler’s theory and reveals that Ching Yih Saou is a picture of it. First, this paper follows up on her activities in Yuan Yung-lun's Ching hai-fen chi as a primary source and then deconstructs sexual identities of masculinity or femininity by considering Ching Yih Saou’s life as an example of Butler’s theory.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 6, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11
Page(s) 83-93
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Ching Yih Saou, Chinese Pirates, Women Pirates, Judith Butler, Gender, Sex, Sexual Difference

References
[1] Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Penguin Books, 1953.
[2] Borges, Jorge Luis. The Widow Ching-Pirate. London: Penguin Classics, 2011.
[3] Butler, Judith. “Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex.” Yale French Studies 72 (1986): 35-41.
[4] Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
[5] Cordingly, David. Pirates: Terror on the High Seas, from the Caribbean to the South China Sea. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996.
[6] DePauw, Linda Grant. Seafaring Women. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982.
[7] Douglas, Mary. Putiry and Dangerous: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Tabboo. New York: Routledge, 2003.
[8] Glasspoole, Richard. “Substance of Mr. Glasspoole’s Relation, Upon His Return to England, Respecting the Ladrones.” Further Statement of the Ladrones on the Coast of China;Intended as a Contribution to the Accounts Published by Mr. Dalrymple. N. p.: Land, Darling, and Co., 1812. 40-45.
[9] “A Brief Narrative of My Captivity and Treatment amongst the Ladrones.” Sketches of Chinese Customs and Manners in 1811-12 Taken During a Voyage to the Cape, etc. With Some Account of the Ladrones, in a Series of Letters to a Friend. Ed. George Wilkinson. Bath: n.p., 1814. N.pag.
[10] Gollomb, Joseph. Pirates Old and New. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2010.
[11] Gosse, Philip. The Pirate’ Who’s Who: Giving Particular of the Lives and Deaths of the Pirates and Buccaneers. New York: Burr Franklin, 1924.
[12] The History of Piracy. New York: Dover Publications, 2007.
[13] Hata, Reiko. "System of Chinese Patriarchy Viewed from the Empress System of the Song Dynasty." Asian History of Women: Essays of Comparative Historical Study, edited by Reiko Hayashi and Setsuko Yanagida. Tokyo:hoten, 1997: 297-311.
[14] Kohama, Masako, et al., eds. Introduction to Gender History in China. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2018.
[15] Chinese History of Gender. Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2015.
[16] Lilius, Aleko. I Sailed with Chinese Pirates. Hong Kong: Earnshaw Books, 2009.
[17] Loviot, Fanny. A Lady’s Captivity among Chinese Pirates. South Carolina: Cretae Space Publishing, 2012.
[18] Mann, Susan L. Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
[19] Matsuura, Akira. Chinese Pirates. Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995.
[20] Maughan, Philip. “An Account of the Ladrones who infested the Coast of China.” Further Statement of the Ladrones on the Coast of China; Intended as a Contribution to the Accounts Published by Mr. Dalrymple. N.p.: Land, Darling, and Co., 1812. 7-32
[21] Murray, Dian H. Pirates of the South China Coast 1790-1810. Stanford: Stanford University, 1987.
[22] Neumann, Charles Friedrich. History of the Pirates: Who Infested the China Sea, From 1807 to 1810. Translation of Yuan Yung-lun, Ching hai-fen. London:Forgotten Books, 2018.
[23] Salih, Sara. Judith Butler. London: Routledge, 2002.
[24] Shirouzu, Noriko. Chinese Women in the 20th Century: Study of Patriarchal System in the Modern and Postmodern Eras. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2001.
[25] Society of Kansai Chinese Women's History, ed. Introduction to History of Chinese Women: The Past and Present of Women. Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 2014.
[26] Sommer, Matthew H. Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China. California:Stanford University Press, 2000.
[27] Stanley, Joe. Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates across the Ages. San Francisco: Haerper Collins, 1995.
[28] Steele, F. O. Women Pirates: A Brief Anthology of Thirteen Notorious Female Pirates. New York: iUniverse, Inc, 2007.
[29] Toyooka, Yasufumi. The Qing Dynasty Viewed from Pirates: The South China Sea from the 18th Century to the 19th Century. Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten, 2016.
[30] Turner, John. “Account of the Captives of J. L. Turner, amongst the Ladrones; accompanyied by some Observations respecting those Pirates” Naval Chronicle, 20. 1808: 456-72.
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    Yoriko Ishida. (2019). A Desexualized Pirate in Yuan Yung-Lun's Ching Hai-Fen Chi: Analysis of Ching Yih Saou's Body and Gender from a Perspective of Butlerian Theory. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 6(6), 83-93. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11

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    Yoriko Ishida. A Desexualized Pirate in Yuan Yung-Lun's Ching Hai-Fen Chi: Analysis of Ching Yih Saou's Body and Gender from a Perspective of Butlerian Theory. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2019, 6(6), 83-93. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11

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    AMA Style

    Yoriko Ishida. A Desexualized Pirate in Yuan Yung-Lun's Ching Hai-Fen Chi: Analysis of Ching Yih Saou's Body and Gender from a Perspective of Butlerian Theory. Int J Lit Arts. 2019;6(6):83-93. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11,
      author = {Yoriko Ishida},
      title = {A Desexualized Pirate in Yuan Yung-Lun's Ching Hai-Fen Chi: Analysis of Ching Yih Saou's Body and Gender from a Perspective of Butlerian Theory},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {6},
      number = {6},
      pages = {83-93},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20180606.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20180606.11},
      abstract = {When the ethical view for women in Confucianism is typified by the principle that “three follow the road,” there is no wonder that men’s predominance of women should be regarded as obligatory in China. The stereotype that women have to be barred from official society and kept imprisoned in their homes has thoroughly penetrated the country. However, Chinese women have presented the impression that they are powerful. The most striking examples are Lü Zhi, Wu Zetian, and Empress Dowager Cixi, who wielded their authority over the country as empresses after their husbands’ deaths. Considering that they are real figures in Chinese history, the fact of powerful women in China cannot be altogether impossible. Now there is a contradiction that some autocratic empresses, without parallel in the world, have existed in the history of a country that has always valued the ideology of women’s subjection to men. An opinion should be that “the differences called sexual difference cannot be applied to all men and women. Rather, this difference is meaningful only when comparing the nature of men and women as groups, that is, at the statistical level,” and the same can be applied to the way Chinese women live. It should be understood that not all women in China were oppressed and that some of them could hold the reins of power, depending on their ages and status. Focusing on maritime history especially reveals the limitations of the stereotype that Chinese women were supposed to be driven out of official roles and oppressed in homes. Take, for example, the pirates who were active on the South China coast, where some communities had members who lived their whole lives aboard ships without landing. Ching Yih Saou the most famous female pirate in Chinese maritime history, was active from the end of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century. The aim of this paper is very innovative. Judith Butler, in forwarding a different position from sex–gender dualism, argues that human beings can exhibit the characteristics of men and women without reference to physical difference. This paper adopts Butler’s theory and reveals that Ching Yih Saou is a picture of it. First, this paper follows up on her activities in Yuan Yung-lun's Ching hai-fen chi as a primary source and then deconstructs sexual identities of masculinity or femininity by considering Ching Yih Saou’s life as an example of Butler’s theory.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • National Institute of Technology, Oshima College, Yamaguchi, Japan

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